Sony Pictures Classics made the call last fall to give Moneyball director Bennett Miller more time to finish Foxcatcher, his hotly anticipated drama based on the true story of Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and the eccentric du Pont heir (Steve Carell) who cast a destructive spell over him in the run-up to the 1988 Summer Games.

As a result, instead of fighting for attention in a field that wound up being dominated by the triple-header of Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, and American Hustle (with a side order of The Wolf of Wall Street), Miller has the field all to himself—at least for now.

According to the ecstatic Variety review that went online immediately following this morning’s screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on the Croisette here in Cannes, Foxcatcher is “a model of bleak, bruising, furiously concentrated storytelling, anchored by exceptional performances from Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and an almost unrecognizable Steve Carell.” Elsewhere, reviewer Justin Chang declares the film to be, quite simply, “great.”

Miller, Carell, Tatum, Ruffalo, and the rest of the Foxcatcher team were greeted with applause and cheers of “Bravo!” at the press conference immediately following the screening.

Carell’s performance was the big topic of conversation. The former Daily Show correspondent is already a major movie star, thanks to hit comedies including The 40-year-old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, and Crazy, Stupid, Love, but he’s now entering a new category altogether: dramatic character actor with substantial Oscar buzz.

Miller choked up a bit after one journalist made an explicit comparison between Carell’s disappearing act in Foxcatcher (everything from his voice to his prosthetic nose is unfamiliar) and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Oscar-winning performance in another Miller film, 2005’s Capote.

“To work with actors who are willing to put faith in me is—you have to be grateful for the rest of your life,” Miller said. He added that, though nothing Carell had done in the past guaranteed that he would succeed in this role, “I just thought, He will do it and he will commit himself to doing it and it will hurt but he will get there.’”

Photo by Scott Garfield, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Carell, for his part, said making Foxcatcher wasn’t that different from making a film like The 40-year-old Virgin: “I think it’s really the same approach you take to a comedy anyway. Because I don’t think characters in films know that they’re in a comedy or a drama.”

And Miller shared his theory for why Carell was able to access his character’s considerable demons so effectively: “I think all comedians are dark.”

In the film, Carell plays John E. du Pont, a wealthy heir obsessed with building an American wrestling team strong enough to win gold at the 1988 Olympics. He takes Mark Schultz under his wing, but his real target is Mark’s more charismatic older brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo), another champion wrestler.

Photo by Scott Garfield, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

The real Mark Schultz was heavily involved in the film, helping to train Tatum and Ruffalo and visiting the set for a number of days during the shoot. “We wrestled for five to six months before [shooting began], and I believe Mark and I both have cauliflower ear as take-home presents—and bad knees,” Tatum said. As for Schultz’s presence on the set, Tatum said it was a mixed blessing. “At times I was so grateful and thankful that he was there, and other times I was so terrified,” he admitted.

Miller said he finally took Schultz aside and told him, “I think Channing needs a little bit of space right now.”

The film explores two strangely exotic worlds: those of championship wrestling and of patrician wealth. As a result, Miller said, “There’s a lot of American male repressed non-communication happening in this story, and there is an undercurrent beneath every undercurrent. Every scene is just the tip of the iceberg.”

And yet, some of the themes are universal. “There is, I feel, a moral thrust of the story,” said Ruffalo. “There’s a Greek tragedy buried in it, which is: What happens when everything has a price tag on it?”